FIRST MAN’s greatest trick is making the voyage to the moon feel almost like science fiction, a long hard slog to an still seemingly impossible destination. That, and keeping Gosling’s charisma earthbound. - (It really bums me out that this movie disappeared so quickly without much attention. I think they made a huge mistake not holding it until it could be the post-thanksgiving consensus family movie.)

Saw this as part of a “dystopia” film series at the Cinerama. Especially in that context, Cuarón’s abiding interest in representing the small moments of humanity in the face of utter overwhelming hopelessness is all the more impressive.

(As an aside, the only way that this hasn’t aged well is that 2027 seems too far in the future for the events depicted.)